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IHE SECRET 

OF THE 
GOLF SWING 

By 

A. G. RICHARDSON 




Price $1.00 



The Secret of the 
Golf Swing 



By 

A. G. RICHARDSON 



Price S 1 .00 



Copyright 1922, By A. G. RICHARDSON 



©CI. A6 74 531 

JUH1072 



The Secret of the 
Golf Swing 

TO the average player it may 
seem that the most important 
thing in golf is either the 
stance, the grip or the swing of the 
club. These things are of little use 
without the most important thing 
of all — body balance. It is a fact 
that nine out of every ten players 
who start to play after reaching 
the adult age, by their very first 
action in bending over to address 
the ball, destroy their body bal- 
ance and make a proper golf swing 
impossible. When the body is out 
of balance anything is liable to 
happen from a slice to a complete 
miss, depending entirely upon the 
luck of the player. 

It would be as well for the adult 
player to have thoroughly im- 
pressed upon his mind the fact 
that all the club swinging that may 



be crowded into a twenty-four 
hour day will do a player little or 
no good unless he is swinging each 
time with his body in proper bal- 
ance. In fact if he is out of bal- 
ance he is doing more harm than 
good, as he is forming habits that 
will be hard to overcome later on. 

When the average player makes 
a poor shot he believes it to be 
caused by faulty grip. He then 
makes his next shot with an altered 
grip, perhaps with a lucky im- 
provement. Very soon, however, 
another stroke fails to bring the 
desired result and he thinks that 
he must have lifted his head, that 
his stance was wrong, that his left 
knee bent too soon or too late, or 
what not, until his entire game 
becomes a guessing contest, not a 
golf game at all. His poor throb- 
bing brain has searched for ex- 
cuses until he has reached a mental 
state bordering upon insanity. He 



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will probably wind up by spending 
the wee sma' hours of the night 
worrying as to w^hat is wrong with 
his game. 

If you are in a mental turmoil 
over the cause of bad shots and are 
disposed to blame stance, grip, or, 
even worse, clubs, let me urge you 
to forget it. To play a satisfactory 
game of golf, if your body is in 
balance, any golf club will produce 
satisfactory results, either one of a 
half a dozen grips will do the 
same, and it is agreed by leading 
professionals that one naturally 
finds the stance that suits each in- 
dividual player. Another reason 
why you should forget all about 
the movement of the knees, arms, 
elbows, toes and what not, while 
making the swing, is for the very 
good reason that thinking about 
them cannot possibly do you a bit 
of good. The hand travels faster 
than the conscious mind or the eye. 



5 



If you want to see this for yourself, 
let the wind blow your hat oft and 
the hand will reach for, and often 
catch, the hat before the conscious 
mind has registered the incident 
or before the eye has seen the top 
piece sail gaily away. How then 
are we to dip this knee or that, 
follow the club head through, or 
do the hundred and one things we 
are telling ourselves to do, in a 
movement where the hands travel 
faster than either the eye or the 
conscious mind? It is therefore 
certain that the sooner you clear 
your mind of all these worries, 
during the process of your swing, 
the sooner will vour mind, as well 
as your eye, be able to function 
properly and help you in the task 
you are trving to accomplish, 
which is to hit the ball. 

Let us see just Vviiat body bal- 
ance means. It means that the 
weight of the body is distributed 



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as Nature intended. The average 
adult stands out of balance, sits 
out of balance ; in fact, spends most 
of his time out of balance. Watch 
the average man bending at his 
desk and you will see that instead 
of bending AT the hips, as he was 
built to do, he bends from the 
shoulders TO the hips. In other 
words he makes a semi-circle of 
his spinal column, a thing never 
intended in Nature. He does the 
same thing when reaching for the 
telephone or for any other article, 
as well as when performing hun- 
dreds of actions in his daily life. 
It is therefore not at all strange 
that he should attempt to play golf 
out of balance. This accounts for 
the fact that youth, having formed 
no ^^out-of-balance'' habits, is able 
to acquire the golfing swing with- 
out difficulty. 

Now the secret of the golf swing 
is the ability to place the body in 



7 



proper balance at the stance, a 
ching that not one out of every 
ten golfers has learned to do. The 
method of accomplishing this I 
claim to have discovered. To show 
you the two ways of bending over, 
try bending as you now do when 
addressing the ball and notice how 
the arms go out toward the ball 
and the siomach away from it. The 
shoulders hunch toward the ball, 
the backbone forming itself into 
a rainbow curve, the head falling 
forward. You are now out of a 
natural balance and might as well 
expect a bent hinge to work prop- 
erly as to expect the body to pivot 
naturallv in this position. In fact 
every part of your operating brain 
will, during the swing, trv its level 
best to keep you from tipping over, 
let alone devoting attention to 
striking the ball. The result of 
vour swing in this- position will 
depend entirely upon luck. 



s 



Now try bending over toward 
the ball WITH THE ELBOWS 
PINNED TO THE SIDES, at 
the same tim^' holding the head 
back, and you will find a complete 
change in the distribution of your 
weight. The body will have bent 
AT the hips. The back will have 
remained straight, or nearly so, 
w^ith the head held in its natural 
position. In fact the weight of the 
entire body will now be in proper 
balance. Now, move the arms out 
to their natural position in address- 
ing the ball. Practice it until this 
method of bending: AT the hips 
comes to you naturallv, but be- 
ware, for a time at least, of a tend- 
ency of the head to fall forward. 
You have probably been slumping 
so long it will com.e naturally when 
you address the ball unless you 
take care each time to bend icith 
the elbows and not a^d:ay from 
them. HOLD THE HEAD 



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THE SECRET O 




Xine out of every ten players star: :;:e;r s'.vinc in 
posture. Xote ho^v the head has fallen forward a: 2-C and 
the ribs have "saeeed" at 4-D. To r:\-ot properly in this 
position is a physical imposibility. 



10 



E GOLF SWING 




11 



BACK AS YOU BEND OVER. 

In order that you may clearly 
see the difference in the two posi- 
tions^ pull the visor of your cap 
well down over the eyes. Take up 
your stance in the old way, by 
slumoing the shoulders toward the 
ball and mark the line of the visor 
of your cap. Now bend over with 
the elbows pinned to the sides, 
with the head held back and you 
will find the hands will reach the 
same position as in the other 
stance, but the body will have re- 
tained its natural balance. The 
visor line or the line of vision will 
have remained practically the 
same as in an uoright oosition, 
which indicates that the head has 
not fallen forw^ard. Is it not rea- 
sonable to suppose that the mind 
and eye cannot function properlv 
when the head is out of its natural 
position, acting as a dead weight, 
rather than as the commander of 



12 



all forces in such a difficult task? 

In addition to this it is also phy- 
sically impossible to pivot prop- 
erly in a slumping posture. It is 
certain that instead of the body 
naturally turning with the hips 
there occurs a sort of sidewise 
movement of the hips and a dis- 
tinct slumping at the knees. This is 
termed ^'waisting.'' Whatever its 
proper name may be, you may be 
assured that the result of your sho: 
in this position depends entirely 
upon how lucky you are in bring- 
ing your club head to the ball. 

After assuming the properly 
balanced stance there are one or 
two things to be said about the 
swing itself. Bear in mind that 
the length of the shot depends up- 
on the width of the circle des- 
cribed by the club head and the 
speed with which it travels. The 
left arm forms the size of the cir- 
cle. In order to keep the left arm 



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from bending too soon and narrow- 
ing the circle, the writer grips the 
club with the left arm turned as 
though he were trying to point 
the left elbow to the sky. This 
brings the left wrist on top of the 
shaft. If the left wrist is pointing 
toward the hole both the wrist and 
elbow are inclined to bend too soon 
and thus narrow the circle. In the 
position first described they will 
turn naturally without worrying 
about them. As far as the right 
hand is concerned get a substantial 
grip of the club with the thumb 
and forefinger. 

We now come to the swing it- 
self. You should learn how to 
PICK UP THE CLUB. This 
consists in pressing the left elbo-ve 
into a straight position, and then 
naturally picking up the club. We 
see so many players pull their club 
and body around as if thev were 
pulling up an anchor. Practice 



PICKIXG UP THE CLUB {as 
previously described), taking it 
around and up, the body pivoting 
naturally. It may be well to repeat 
that it is a mistake to try to have 
the mind keep up to any movement 
of the hands. You have now ac- 
quired a properly balanced stance, 
your grip is right and you register 
the thought to straighten the left 
elbow and PICK UP THE 
CLUB. The swing then starts 
and once it has started do not ask 
the mind to see that the circle is 
thus and so, or that you make a 
perfect follow through, for the 
simple reason that the whole thing 
will be well over before your eye 
or mind catches up to the move- 
ment that is taking place. 

Always remember that the golf 
swing is a natural swing when the 
body is in a natural position. This 
is proven by the very fact that 
the swing comes naturally to the 

is 



youth. We make it unnatural by 
assuming an unnatural, unbal- 
anced stance. When this occurs 
many muscles have to work against 
each other. The poorest games 
are always the most tiring. 

Therefore learn to naturally 
PICK UP THE CLUB. One of 
the leading professionals teaches 
his pupils to pick up the club and 
then throw it at the ball, as if he 
were throwing the head of the club 
away. Whether or not the mind 
can properly time a ^^throw-it-at- 
the-ball" idea or not, perhaps is 
a question, but in any event that 
seems to describe what actually 
does happen in a well-hit shot. 

In playing all iron shots the 
same care mut be used to see that 
the body weight is evenly balanced 
at the start. The inclination to 
^^stoop" in making the stance for 
iron shots is even more pronounced 
than in others, and until it becomes 



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second nature one must bend with 
the elbows at the side, with the 
head held back, until he is in posi- 
tion to sole the club. In making 
iron shots the writer places the left 
forearm and wrist as described for 
the drive, in order to make sure 
that the club head will describe 
a wide, true circle. All iron shots 
should be played boldly. On the 
upstroke straighten the left elbow 
and PICK UP THE CLUB. 

We have heard so many times 
the command to keep the head still 
and the eye on the ball, that repe- 
tition here is not necessary. I do 
believe, however, that one should 
refrain from staring at the ball. 
The eye and the mind know full 
well what you are trying to accom- 
plish and they will do their level 
best to help you. It would sound 
rather silly if we told the tennis or 
baseball player to ^^keep his eye on 
the ball,'' yet that is just what he 



17 



does or at least tries to do. Take, 
for instance, the case of a baseball 
player. A ball is batted into the air 
and he runs to catch it. The ball 
descends rapidly; in fact too rap- 
idly for the conscious mind and eye 
to keep up with its line of flight. 
Yet the hand will naturally find the 
line of flight to receive it and the 
ball lands into the open palm be- 
fore the catcher realizes that he 
has caught it. This is undoubtedly 
what happens in the golf stroke. 
The hand naturally feels its way 
into the proper position before the 
conscious mind or eye ^^gets on the 
job.'' In any event do not worry 
about it while making the golf 
swing, as the ball will be well on 
its way before you can ^^keep your 
eye on it." 

Before closing, the wTiter de- 
sires to say that it is neither his 
intention to disparage any theory 
or form of practice taught by older 



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and better players, nor is it his 
desire to pose as a superior player 
or teacher. If, however, others 
benefiting by his experience and 
study, are able to find a shorter 
way to good golf than that traveled 
by the average adult, then his ef- 
fort will be considered as worth 
while. He does know from exper- 
ience, howxver, that many discour- 
agements will come to the player 
who plays badly and yet never 
really knows the reason for it. The 
writer asks that you hesitate before 
giving way to other remedies for 
your golfing ills. This formula is 
the result of careful analysis and 
practice. Keeping it before you 
and practicing it faithfullv will 
pay big dividends in mental satis- 
faction, as well as show vou the 
way to better golf. 



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